The man accused of murdering Daniel Morcombe will face his committal hearing on Monday.

FOLLOW our rolling coverage of the Daniel Morcombe case on Tuesday as committal proceedings of accused murderer and child abductor Brett Peter Cowan take place in the Brisbane Magistrates Court.

4.33pm: Dr Bennett told the court the shoes found at the crime scene had the same ''wear patterns and angulation'' as Daniel's other shoes.

Court has now adjourned for the day, with Mr Bosscher set to continue the cross examination of Dr Bennett tomorrow.

4.11pm: In cross examining, Mr Bosscher said Dr Bennett was given a pair of shoes that Daniel had worn two years earlier to compare with the shoes found at the crime scene.

He asked whether shoes Daniel had worn as an 11-year-old would have had a different wear pattern, given his weight, height and the length of his gait would have been different.

''(It) would or could have had an effect on any comparison,'' Mr Bosscher said.

''To a limited degree,'' Dr Bennett replied.

3.29pm: The third witness to be sworn in is Dr Paul Bennett, a forensic podiatrist.

Bruce and Denise Morcombe in front of a painting of their son. PIC: Megan Slade

Dr Bennett was asked by police to examine the shoes recovered from the Glass House Mountains to see whether it could be determined if they belonged to Daniel.

''(I look at) the size and the magnitude of the wear patterns,'' he said.

Dr Bennett told the court there were ''some wear characteristics evident'' on the right shoe and both would have been worn by someone aged 12 or 13.

He said he could see from the wear on one shoe that the wearer had ''muscle tightness'' in the back of the leg but agreed that other wear patterns could have been caused by ''environmental perish''.

2.56pm: Mr Meehan said there were discrepancies in Ms Cummins recollections of where the man had been standing outside the car.

He said given her description, the man would have had to have been standing behind the car, out of her view.

Ms Cummins agreed that her statement could have been confused, insisting that the car had not been blocking her view.

''He look neat and clean - he wouldn't be working with tools,'' she said.

Daniel Morcombe went missing while waiting for a bus at the Kiel Mountain overpass bridge Woombye. Picture: John Wilson

She said she thought at the time that perhaps the man was an uncle picking the boy up.

''I saw the child walking to the car,'' Ms Cummins said.

''When I watched the scene I watched a child being picked up and I saw him being invited to the car.

''I thought maybe I shouldn't watch.

''I felt uneasy because I shouldn't have been watching.''

2.47pm: The court has now moved on to the cross examination of its second witness, a Marian Cummins in Noumea, who is giving evidence via video link.

The court heard Ms Cummins provided police with information that led to a sketch or ''comfit'' image being produced.

Tim Meehan, for Bosscher Lawyers, representing Cowan, said Ms Cummins provided a statement to police in May, 2004, about an old blue station wagon she saw five months earlier - on December 7 - while being driven by her husband.

''It was stopped not in a normal way,'' Ms Cummins said.

Daniel Morcombe.

''It was stopped to pick up somebody.

''Because it was someone picking up a child, I took time to look at it.

''It was off the main road.''

Ms Cummins said media reports describing the clothing Daniel had been wearing prompted her to call police.

''The colour of the clothes reminded me that this was the child I saw.''

Mr Meehan said Ms Cummins described in her statement seeing two people - aside from the child - at the car.

''One outside standing up and I presume there was one inside (the car),'' Ms Cummins said.

''I could only see the silhouette.

''I remember the face of the person standing up and the smile on his face.

2.24pm: The court was shown photographs of items of clothing found near a small wooden bridge on Coochin Creek.

A pair of dark shorts remained largely in tact, as did a dark belt.

But the remains of a pair of underpants were almost unrecognisable, with only the waistband and edging left.

1pm: Court breaks for lunch.

Daniel Morcombe.

12.54pm: Another bone fragment was found at a "cluster site" on September 9 after police went back to search to a deeper level.

It was the last find for police, although they would continue the search for more than a month.

Another crime scene had been set up in the Coochin Creek area, where police divers had found the remains of a pair of underpants in the creek bed in late August.

A later search, where divers felt their way down to 25cm under the sand-based creek bed, turned up a Rip Curl t-shirt, a belt and some fabric.

''Later on, we did excavate the creek itself and found nothing,'' Insp Van Panhuis told the court.

12.23pm: More bone fragments were found on September 3, as police called back a geotechnician to help them narrow down search zones.

Mr Bosscher described it as a ''cluster'' of bone fragments, all found within a metre of each other.

''We were having results, so we decided to continue with the same search methodology,'' Insp Van Panhuis said.

''The remains we were finding were exceptionally fragile.

''If we entered into a search methodology using mechanical means, we would have risked damaging them.''

On September 4, another six ''items of interest'' were found. The court heard two of those items have never been identified.

Three days later, following a ''walk through'' by police, it was decided that one of the crime scenes had been ''exhausted'' and no further searches would take place.

Police had scoured sand, a well and tobacco drying sheds during the search.

It was also the crime scene that had previously held the demountable - later renovated and moved off site.

Carpet that once lined the floor of the demountable was taken and forensically tested but nothing arose from those tests, the court heard.

11.57am: By September 1, police had uncovered partial bone fragments in the mud further north in the search zone.

By now, police were using bobcats and other machinery to dig up the earth.

They also searched a disused sand mine, where they had to dig to a depth of about a metre.

Police divers searched a dam, moving between 10 to 15m from the bank.

''There was no area of high priority - the entire area was a high priority,'' Insp Van Panhuis said.

10.58am: Mr Bosscher said the locations of the shoes and the first bone to be discovered were not found at the exact spot where police had been told Daniel's remains were located.

He said the items could not have moved from the place where police concentrated their search, by the flow of water.

''For the bone to be located where it was, it certainly couldn't have ended up there by water,'' he said.

''If that was flow, it was going against the flow.''

Insp Van Panhuis agreed, saying it was "highly unlikely".

He said it was also "highly unlikely" the shoes had been moved by the flow of water.

On August 21, another bone was found.

10.46am: The court was shown a close-up image of the shoe as it was found partly buried in mud.

''As you can see, it is clearly visible through the top there,'' Insp Van Panhuis said.

As excavation work continued, investigators were able to make out the brand name "Globe" on the shoe.

That was the only discovery for police on August 17, the court heard.

The following day, the search was condensed even further on the small dam area.

On August 20, the second shoe was found.

Photographs and plaster casts were taken of the shoe's tread pattern in the soil.

Later that day - and some distance from the second shoe - search parties found a human bone.

''That was part of the SES, hands and knees, shoulder to shoulder (search)?'' Mr Bosscher asked.

''Yes,'' Insp Van Panhuis replied.

''And those were the only two items found that day,'' Mr Bosscher added.

10.28am: By August 17, SES volunteers continued with their laborious search of an area around a small dam, designated as the "priority" search area.

Mr Bosscher said police knew at that time the dam area was the "most likely" area where Daniel's remains would be found.

"Police were in possession of information that that was the likely place where remains would be found," he said.

Mr Bosscher asked Insp Van Panhuis whether that was the reason for the great majority of search crews being sent to the dam area.

He agreed.

It was on this day that search crews found the first ''item of interest'' - a shoe.

The court was shown a photograph of a muddy patch of swamp where the shoe was found.

10.18am: Police were told by a hydrologist that the Brisbane floods would have had little effect on spreading human remains, despite the Glass House Mountains crime scene areas being under 2-3m of water at the time.

''Our information from the hydrologist was that the water raised and then lowered but there wasn't that much flow,'' Insp Van Panhuis said.

''(Search crews were on their) hand and knees, shoulder to shoulder, going to a depth of about 15cm.''

He said those digging were doing so in areas that were ''hugely overgrown'' with large amounts of leaf litter.

10.05am: On August 14, the court heard, police went to an address on Mill St, Landsborough, where police spoke to the owner of a demountable shed.

Insp Van Panhuis said the demountable had been moved from another location to the Mill St address, where it was extensively renovated.

''Discussions were held about what had occurred in that demountable,'' Mr Bosscher asked Insp Van Panhuis.

He agreed, but said the building was of no forensic value because it had been "extensively" renovated, including the walls having been replaced and chemicals used during the refurbishment process.

9.48am: Inspector Arthur Van Panhuis said police initially did a "surface search" of an area of the Glasshouse Mountains when they moved in, to look for remains on August 13, 2011.

''Just a quick look over the surface to see whether there was anything visible,'' he said.

From there, police used excavators and sandbags to prevent water from coming into certain areas as the search intensified.

One officer on scene was trained in the archeology of human remains, but police soon called in experts to provide assistance.

They included university experts who specialised in DNA, a channel morphologist, who studies the movement of water, a hydrologist, animal behaviourists, and a staff member from the Department of Fisheries to provide advice on the behaviour of marine wildlife.

At this point, the court heard, the search was focused on a small dam area.

9.30am: The first witness to take the stand is Inspector Arthur Van Panhuis, a forensic police officer.

Michael Bosscher, for Cowan, has asked the officer to look at a map of the Glasshouse Mountains where markings show where "items of interest" were located.

"There were three crime scenes in relation to this particular map," he said.

The court heard nothing of significance was found at "Crime Scene 1", other than pieces of carpet that Daniel had been buried in.

9.18am: Charges have been read against accused murdered and child abductor Brett Peter Cowan as committal proceedings begin in the Brisbane Magistrates Court.

Chief Magistrate Brendan Butler told Cowan he was facing five charges relating to the death of Sunshine Coast teenager Daniel Morcombe.

Daniel, 13, was abducted from a Sunshine Coast bus stop on December 7, 2003.

Cowan was charged with his murder in August, 2011. A week later human remains were found in the Glasshouse Mountains.

Chief Magistrate Brendan Butler told Cowan he was charged with ''enticing away'' Daniel on December 7, 2003, depriving him of his liberty, unlawfully and indecently dealing with the teenager, murder and interfering with a corpse.

The court has heard 52 witnesses will be cross examined in the coming weeks.

9am: As court proceedings began this morning, Daniel's parents were told they were allowed to remain in the court room.

Earlier, Daniel Morcombe's family have been told they may have to leave court when a committal hearing against the man charged with their son's murder starts in Brisbane.

Daniel's parents, Bruce and Denise, and brothers, Dean and Bradley, plan to attend the committal of 43-year-old Brett Peter Cowan, who is accused of abducting and killing the Sunshine Coast teen in 2003.

But they have been told they might be excluded from part of the hearing by Chief Magistrate Judge Brendan Butler because, under the Justices Act, potential future witnesses can be excluded from observing proceedings whilst other witnesses are giving evidence.

Mrs Morcombe said she wanted to hear the evidence rather than "have to read about it" but her husband said he was preparing for the worst.

"Part of the preparation for the committal has been getting into the mental state to accept the judge saying 'can you please remove yourself from court'," Mr Morcombe said.

"I'm only interested in what the judge says because he has to make that call.

"If we are allowed to stay, there are no special privileges or reserved seating for us but we'd certainly like to observe justice being served."

It is understood the court is considering streaming proceedings on television screens outside the court room due to limited seating.

The first two weeks of the committal will adjourn on December 7, the ninth anniversary of Daniel's disappearance, and resume for two weeks from February 4.

This first week is expected to centre on the scientific evidence with experts from forensic laboratories in New Zealand, Melbourne and Adelaide testifying via video-link.

Mr Morcombe said the DNA evidence could be crucial to securing the release of Daniel's remains.

"If the evidence is sound, let's have Daniel's remains released with haste," he said.

A number of witnesses, including those who say they saw Daniel at the Woombye bus stop from which the 13-year-old vanished, will be cross-examined by Cowan's defence team.

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